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Author: Newspaper front pages great for revisiting history

Book features front pages from Rocky Mountain News' 150-year run in Colorado

ByJENNI GRUBBS Times Staff Writer

Posted:
10/19/2012 07:27:16 PM MDT

Updated:
10/22/2012 10:18:44 AM MDT

Journalist Michael Madigan tells his audience at the Brown Bag Lunch about one of the front-page Rocky Mountain News stories featured in his book, "Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters." Madigan's book looks at the newspaper's 150-year history through the stories that were told in its pages and the way they were written.

Every day of publication, a newspaper's front page tells a different story.

Sometimes it's a routine government story, but sometimes it's the start of a major war or the death of a politician or celebrity.

Longtime journalist and author Michael Madigan found many such stories in his book about the thousands of front page stories published by the Rocky Mountain News during its 150-year run.

In "Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters," Madigan looks not only at some of the biggest stories the paper covered but also some of the smaller ones that helped make the Rocky what it was for so long.

Madigan, who was the speaker at the October Brown Bag Lunch at Fort Morgan Library and Museum, shared several of the things he discovered in his research into the newspaper's history -- in a lot of ways into Colorado's history -- during his presentation.

Madigan, himself, is also part of the Rocky's history, having worked there for around 30 years, leaving only shortly before the newspaper was closed early in 2008 after its owner failed to find a buyer.

"The idea for the book came from a series I was writing leading up to (the paper's) 150th anniversary," Madigan said.

Similar to what he turned into a book, the planned series was to run for 150 days, with each part covering a front page from one of the 150 years that the Rocky Mountain News was published and distributed.

"What we didn't plan on was the Rocky Mountain News closed with about 50 of these chapters left to run," Madigan told his Fort Morgan audience.

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Once he knew that he had more than 50 parts of the series left to run and lots more to write from all of his related research, the idea came together to turn it into a book.

"I've always been a big history buff," Madigan said. "What I really wanted to do was to really take the reader back to that time, what it was like" on the day that particular stories ran in the paper.

He said that he found that this was somewhat natural, as each front page story was written and then printed from the perspective of life that day in Colorado.

After his presentation, author Michael Madigan signs a copy of his book, "Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters," purchased by an attendee of the Brown Bag Lunch at Fort Morgan Library & Museum.

"It really is like reading from that event on the day it was published," Madigan said of researching and reading all those front pages and then writing about what he found.

He said when he was reading the April 23, 1859, front page, he could imagine "William Byers printing off the first edition upstairs in Dick Wooton's saloon."

In his book, Madigan gives more details about that night, but just his description of what it was like to do the research and the images it gave him was enough to get any newspaper buff excited about his subject and want to know more about the Rocky's history.

Madigan spent an hour or so talking about that history, sharing stories from the paper like how around the turn of the 20th century, inventor and electrical pioneer Nicolas Tesla, who spent time in Colorado Springs, was reportedly predicting that the future would bring technology allowing people to speak with Mars from the top of Pike's Peak. This story was on the top of the Jan. 1, 1901, front page.

And Madigan spoke about many quirky or fun stories like that, but also about the serious ones, including the death of multiple presidents and how they were covered by the paper.

"I'll take you back to 1865 and have you think about what it would have been like if you lived in a Denver hotel. There was a kind of buzz in the air," Madigan said, as people in downtown picked up the morning copy of the Rocky Mountain News and started reading it, only to turn to page 2 and read about how President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

"At the time, the style was to have small ads on the front page," he said, explaining why it wasn't on the front page. "This is how residents of Colorado would have heard about it."

Madigan's audience was attentive and thirsty for more information, asking about how a daily newspaper in Colorado would have gotten all of the details about the assassination that were in the story that was published.

"Was there an Associated Press then?" and, "How did people get their news?" were a couple of the questions that were asked.

Madigan explained that telegraphs were used in the 1860s to pass along national news stories, such as the death of Lincoln, from stop to stop.

"Very often, they would be updated over the course of the day or weeks," Madigan explained, and then as more of the story came out, the editors and press operators would append the new information to the end of the story for the next press run.

Reading part of the Lincoln assassination story, Madigan pointed out the differences between news stories of the past and those more commonly found today.

"The pistol ball entered into the back of the President's head, penetrating nearly through the head. The wound is mortal, and the President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now about dying," the second paragraph of the story reads, according to Madigan's book, which he called "pretty dramatic writing."

"I think the use of the language was interesting," he said. "It gives you some sense of the writing style of the time."

And while Madigan shared details about other major stories featured in his book, some of the slides he showed of front pages spoke for themselves.

"HEARTBREAK: 2 student gunmen terrorize Columbine High in deadliest school shooting in U.S. history."

These slides brought looks of recognition and sadness to the faces in the Brown Bag audience.

But in addition to talking about the major stories, Madigan also shared how newspapers changed over the Rocky's history, including ways the coverage changed and how the pages were designed and printed over the years.

A major change was the introduction of photography to the paper around 1915.

Another big change was when the Rocky's then-editor, Jack Foster, turned it into a tabloid format, meaning it was made of short, smaller pages, unlike the typical broadsheet newspapers. This was an attempt in 1942 to turn the then-struggling daily into a "modern-tempo newspaper," Madigan said, and to both save the readers they had and attract new ones by making it easier to hold, more attractive for advertisers and save newsprint during the wartime shortages.

And the Rocky had other tricks in its pages over the years, including introducing a women's advice column that "became a model for Ann Landers and Dear Abby," Madigan said.

The "Molly Mayfield" column was Foster's idea, and his wife was "Molly," who doled out advice to "the wives and families at Lowry Air Force Base, whose husbands and sons had gone off to the war," Madigan said.

One of the things Madigan said he learned during his research was that a daily newspaper, like the Rocky, produced lots of quality journalism, some of it forgotten or dismissed.

But "whether you agree or disagree with how news was reported (and) printed, lots of stories got told that wouldn't have," Madigan said.

He pointed to the statewide, even nationwide or worldwide, audience that learned about the Watergate scandal, how and why Gary Hart dropped out of a presidential race, the beginning of the first Gulf War, how and why Bill Clinton was impeached and the deadly Storm King Mountain Fire from stories in daily newspapers like the Rocky.

"Newspapers have often spouted the well-meaning objective of being the watchdogs of the community," he said.

But he recognized how this had led to yellow journalism and not-so-high points in newspaper history, as well.

While he didn't answer the question himself, he challenged his audience to think about the state of journalism today, as daily newspapers shrink and disappear and the Internet and social media seems to take over the distribution of news.

In a farewell letter in the Rocky's final edition, Publisher and Editor John Temple wrote, "We hope Coloradans will remember this newspaper fondly from generation to generation, a reminder of Denver's history."

The audience asked if Madigan could "see a time when there will be no printed newspapers."

"Probably, but I think it will be years, decades away," he said.

Madigan ended his presentation with a final slide: "--30--" which in newspaper parlance means "the end," modeled after the xxx Civil war reporters put at the end of their handwritten stories to let editors know they had received all of the pages.

"Over time, the 'xxx' became read as Roman numerals, '30,'" Madigan said, giving the Brown Bag audience a final insight into the newspaper world that he learned about during his years at the Rocky.

Madigan said he enjoyed giving his presentation in Fort Morgan.

"The people had really good questions," he said. "And it was a really good turnout," with 20-25 people showing up.

And while Madigan's visit was also about promoting his book, he said he enjoys sharing what he learned from his research into the Rocky's 150-year history.

"I've done programs like this all over the state," he said. "I really enjoy the idea of sharing this history. The book does that. ... A lot of people who pick up the book are new to the state. It's a good way to learn about Colorado history."

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